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WASHINGTON — Initial claims for unemployment benefits dropped more than expected last week, but little relief for U.S. workers is in sight as companies continue to cut jobs.

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The Labor Department reported Thursday that new applications for jobless benefits fell to a seasonally adjusted 554,000 for the week ending Dec. 13, from an upwardly revised figure of 575,000 the previous week. The new tally was slightly below economists' expectations of 558,000 claims.

One likely reason for the improvement is that the figure was inflated two weeks ago by applicants who delayed filing their claims during the Thanksgiving holiday week, a Labor Department analyst said. The government attempts to account for such volatility with its seasonal adjustments but is not always successful.

Still, the four-week moving average, which smooths out fluctuations, increased slightly to 543,750 claims, the highest since December 1982. The labor force has grown by about half since then.

Large layoffs are occurring across many sectors of the economy. On Thursday, water treatment and storage systems maker Pentair Inc. said it will cut more than 10 percent of its work force, or about 1,600 jobs, due to a faster-than-expected drop-off in demand and consumer spending.

FedEx Corp. said Thursday it has cut jobs and closed locations in its FedEx Office unit, as the company anticipates business at its copy and shipping stores will continue to wane.

The latest claims data indicate that employers are continuing to lay off workers and are slow to hire, trends that economists said will send the unemployment rate higher in coming months.

The Labor Department said earlier this month that employers cut a net total of 533,000 jobs in November, sending the unemployment rate to 6.7 percent, the highest in 15 years.

Total job losses this month "could well be larger than the November decline," Abiel Reinhart, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase Bank, wrote in a client note.

The jobless claims numbers also suggest that the unemployment rate could increase by at least 0.2 percentage point this month, Reinhart wrote.

Leading indicators fall again
Separately, the New York-based Conference Board's index of leading economic indicators fell for the second straight month, dropping 0.4 percent in November. That was slightly better than the 0.5 percent decline economists expected.

The index is designed to forecast economic activity in the next three to six months based on 10 economic components, including stock prices, building permits and unemployment insurance claims.

The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits also improved slightly, declining to 4.38 million from 4.43 million in the previous week. Economists expected a slight increase to 4.45 million.

Economists consider jobless claims a timely, if volatile, indicator of the health of the labor markets and broader economy. A year ago, initial claims stood at 349,000.

The elevated level of claims is just one of several signs that the labor market has deteriorated rapidly in recent months.